Sorrow and outrage

Transit workers are our nation’s frontline warriors for urban mobility. And their workplace can be dangerous, with maintenance workers handling heavy machinery and large moving vehicles and operators facing traffic and, increasingly, unhinged and sometimes violent passengers.

But what happened in San Jose yesterday morning at the Valley Transportation Authority light rail yard is another dimension entirely. Words fail us at the horror, so we will let President Biden say it for us.

There are at least eight families [now nine] who will never be whole again. There are children, parents, and spouses who are waiting to hear whether someone they love is ever going to come home. There are union brothers and sisters – good, honest, hardworking people – who are mourning their own. Every life that is taken by a bullet pierces the soul of our nation. We can, and we must, do more. God bless all those whose lives were lost today, and all those who loved them.

President Joe Biden, May 26, 2021

This happened literally just down the tracks from our city, home to two similar light rail yards plus several bus facilities. It has unnerved and outraged everyone who works in those facilities and their families and their friends, as it has transit workers across America. Our hearts are with them as well.

We at Market Street Railway mourn with all of the nation, especially those transit workers everywhere who give us freedom of movement, in the wake of this awful event.